Guide dog users get down to business on their rights
Workers are being urged to paw-se and think when they see a guide dog enter their business, as a campaign aims to highlight the rights of vision-impaired people.
Two-month-old labradors hit NSW parliament to launch a resource to help make low-vision and blind people more aware of their rights.
The launch of Guide Dogs NSW/ACT's Self-Advocacy Toolkit on Wednesday follows another campaign pressing Sydney businesses to build better environments for people with vision issues.
The free online toolkit is designed to help low-vision and blind people understand and communicate their rights when presented with issues in a business.
Alan Edwards, who has low vision, said he wished he had access to something similar when he began using a guide dog.
"Access issues are very rarely a flat refusal - they're really just confusion," he said.
"Often, a staff member may not understand a guide dog is an assistance animal and that they can have access.
"So it's often just communication issues between a restaurant or business and someone living with blindness and low vision."
The kit covers legal rights under both state and federal laws, including what venues can and can't do regarding assistance animals.
Buy-in from firms to the earlier Access Means Business campaign had been really good, Guide Dogs NSW/ACT's Gemma Farquhar said.
But she implored society to continue thinking about how to help people with vision problems.
"It's just something that you need to keep front of mind," she told AAP.
"It's easy to set and forget, but it's really around the ongoing education, incremental changes."
Away from the ruff-and-tumble of their respective chambers, NSW politicians of all breeds met the soon-to-be guide dogs at Parliament House on Wednesday.
Top dog - Speaker Greg Piper - hosted the four-legged-friends, along with members from both sides of the aisle, in his private garden along with advocates from across the sector.
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